It’s all hype that embarrasses Gen. James Mattis, the chief of U.S. Central Command, who is preparing to retire this spring after one of the most productive four-decade sprints in uniform of his generation.

To Marines, Mattis is Chaos, his call sign and nom de guerre. According to interviews with more than a half-dozen officers who know him well, Mattis is an iconoclast and innovator who strove to outmaneuver the enemy on the battlefield, paralysis in Washington and the “yes, sir!” culture of the military.

Others, particularly civilians, consider the former Camp Pendleton-based commander controversial or brutish, based on statements such as one Mattis made in San Diego in 2005 when he proclaimed he liked brawling and shooting some people — like the Taliban. “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap around women for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway, so it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them,” he said.

Imaging

In person Mattis, 62, is unimposing. He is rather short and slight of build. He speaks with a lisp and rarely raises his voice. His blunt tough talk, however, and indisputable aggressiveness in combat endear him to many Marines, especially teenage infantrymen who volunteered during wartime to kill bad guys. Mattis has been rebuked and told to choose his words more carefully, but he never apologized or admitted any regrets — another mark in his favor among the rank and file.

His pugnacious soliloquies are said to be part of his brilliance as a communicator and, some add, a useful contrivance to rally the troops. Whether his audience is lance corporals heading into combat or sultans, kings and presidents who control the passage or resources needed for his mission, Mattis knows how to speak their language and enlist support.

Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy served under Mattis in Iraq. Before the 2003 invasion, Mattis brought each battalion into the base auditorium to brief them on how he wanted every last Marine to fight. Over and over again, the same speech some 50 times. “Having a vision and beating that thing flat as a cat on a highway, I think that is genius. Nobody has the staying power to do that,” Kennedy said.

Mattis, who led 1st Marine Division personnel into Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War as well as the 2003 invasion, is also respected as a warrior statesman, compassionate commander and skilled tactician who reshaped the way America goes to war during an era of protracted combat.

The general has inspired a stream of fan mail from fellow Marines, supplications from jailed young veterans, imprudent tattoos, passages in history books, satirical online spoofs, even a television character.

The legend is overwrought. Mattis is the first to say so. In a 2004 speech to midshipmen at the Naval Academy that laid out the principles that guided him through the inevitable moral crises of war, he said “I get a lot of credit these days for things I never did.”